"Do you believe in reincarnation?" Dirk's question takes me by surprise and that instead of asking the obligatory question What makes you ask that?, makes me answer his question in the affirmative.

Be aware that the author, Alma Verbunt, was trained with the assumption you are not to open up to your client ever, a trace of the tried and tested Freudian approach in which a therapist makes himself completely invisible. Verbunt is convinced that that is proper behaviour in most cases, but that there are times when a direct (and honest!) answer to a direct question can be of invaluable therapeutic worth. Especially to people who do not quite fit in.

There are many trends in treatment, however none of them is the standalone miracle-product they are proclaimed to be. There is no such thing as a quick fix, because real people are involved. Therapy can be hard work - both for the clients and for the counsellors. But if you are willing to trust your observations and your intuitions, to invest in a therapeutic relationship with your client, small miracles may start to happen.

Verbunt has and has had the privilege of working as a counsellor in private practice for around 30 years. She has examined and explored many things, both as a private person as well as together with her clients, thereby endeavouring to preserve the good as it works for both her clients and herself. She wholeheartedly and happily concludes that although there may be many misfits, a meaningful place in their lives can be found for each and everyone of them. Because it takes a lot of kinds to make a world.